We Make Nonsense of Investing

Take Your Lumps And Enjoy Them

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK - The stock market is the adventure in the exploration of pleasure vs. pain. In this TrendSmasher exclusive, we examine stocks that tend to attract (and keep) investors that tend to enjoy suffering. These bagholder delights should be avoided at all costs for now.

5. Atlas Resource Partners ($ARP) - Oil stocks have been battered all around, and just about any of them could have made this list. However, $ARP with its high dividend, attracted investors like a moth to a flame. And oh, have they suffered. In 2012, the price of $ARP was over $30 a share. Now it's languishing in Penny Land on the OTC. It seems that the weight of the world's energy market was just too much for this little fella.

4. Mankind ($MNKD) - Ah, the promise of a breakthrough delivery system to treat diabetes and potentially other medical conditions . . . that many people seemed to dislike. The stock was relentlessly battered due to a disastrous roll-out by Sanofi and paltry sales numbers. Apparently, the majority of diabetics prefer to not use a miniature hookah to administer insulin. Hit pieces by some of the best gaslighters in the business also helped to rattle investor confidence (which was already plenty rattled). The cries of anguished investors still ring true in cyberspace. Owners of this lemon have been savaged over the last few years.

3. Sears ($SHLD) - Does anyone go to Sears anymore? It doesn't seem like it. This once proud big-box retailer is a shadow of its former self. Years of mismanagement, crappy stores, and online shopping have sheared Sears down to a gurgling turd circling the flusher to oblivion. The chart for Sears is flatlining and we can only hope that Michonne from The Walking Dead comes along to finish the job with her trusty sword. This terrible company is perfect for an investor that enjoys to be financially flagellated.

2. Chipotle Mexican Grill ($CMG) - Just about everyone loves Mexican food until there's some kind of awful illness involved. People have died from eating tainted food of all forms, yet the reaction to a series of non-lethal outbreaks at this popular Mexican fast-food chain was met with a mass exodus by Chipoltians everywhere. Yes, the additional crop dusting probably accelerated climate change, but shit happens, right? The stock was just about severed in two, and is now down in the $380s and crumbling steadily. There's also the question if President-elect Donald Trump will tweet about Chipotle someday. Yikes!

1. Valeant Pharmaceuticals ($VRX) - The golden child of Big Pharma turned out to be the black sheep of the family. After its ridiculous business practices were exposed the stock fell like a giant boulder over a cliff the past 16 months, from a high over $260 per share down to under $15 dollars today. There are a lot of stories floating around about investors who kept thinking they found a bottom in this turd, but the toilet doesn't seem to be finished flushing. Even when there's good news, the stock price falls.